White Collar 4x16 (AKA "OH GOD WHY?")
Mar. 5th, 2013 11:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
citrinesunsetI think I've been spoiled when it comes to White Collar. Pun intended. I mean, I came into the show late, and even though I didn't actively seek out spoilers for the main plot stuff in the first few seasons, I didn't avoid them, and as a result I found out about a lot of the twists and cliffhangers ahead of time. And I'm glad, because I think "Judgment Day" would've made me too sad if I didn't go into it forewarned.
This is my first experience of seeing a major White Collar cliffhanger without warning, and I have to wonder, is this how fans of the show always feel at the end of a season? Is my reaction of staring wide-eyed at the screen and wanting to say, "No! What the fuck?" just par for the course?
I want to do a proper breakdown of this episode, but I'm afraid the ending trumps everything else. Still, I'll give it a try.
First, some general notes:
- New episodes aren't coming back until fall? Really? I mean, I guess that sort of makes sense, because I don't know if they've had much time to film season five yet. Still, that's way too long not to know what's going to happen.
- Shock over the cliffhanger aside, I can't imagine things won't work out. I mean, I'd be surprised if Peter spends season five in prison (or much of season five, at least). Then again, I guess you never know. And it'd be an interesting narrative choice....
- Also, I guess maybe it's a good thing that White Collar can manage to surprise me. A lot of the surprises this season haven't been very surprising to me at all, like Sam being James and James being a total dick.
- So, the speculation about a proposal at the Empire State Building was partly true. And the speculation about someone getting shot was true, but not in the way people were expecting.
- I had a sense of foreboding about Peter throughout this episode.
Specific notes:
- James thinks Neal has more self-control than he does? Neal, the guy who walked into a sting to see Kate, broke out of prison to stop Kate from leaving him, and almost shot Fowler? And James is admitting he has less self-control? I feel like this is the first note of foreboding in this episode.
- Callaway sounds so good when she's talking to Peter's face, and so devious when she's talking to Pratt. By the end of this episode, I still don't feel like I know exactly whose side she's on.
- Peter and Elizabeth look so comfortable curled up in bed together.
- Yay! Hughes!
- Per season one, Hughes had been set to retire years ago, and then returned to work because everyone loved him so much. So to be fair, I don't think he has to worry about retiring too early at this point.
- Interesting how Hughes is advocating a less official approach to things now. I feel like this is what has happened to Peter over the first few seasons--seeing Fowler's corruption and Kramer's unethical motives has shaken some of his faith in the system. I think Hughes is in the same place right now.
- Heh, I like groggy!Neal.
- Wait, Sara's staying with him now? Why are things getting so serious between them behind the scenes? There was no indication of it prior to last week! And I really like Neal/Sara, so I would've been all for a little more relationship development.
- Poor Sara. Every time she tries to spend the night with Neal, people barge in on them.
- LOL at James calling her Kate and then Alex, though. Wait, so James knows about Kate, but not that Kate is dead? What's Neal been doing, telling him some fantasy version of things where Kate is still his (casual, apparently) girlfriend?
- James seems awfully defensive when Peter tells them what Pratt said about the evidence. Mozzie totally shoots Neal a suspicious look. Yeah, Mozzie's onto this guy.
- Peter is really lucky to have Diana and Jones on his side.
- I started feeling some serious foreboding about Peter when he makes dinner plans with Elizabeth. I just knew that wouldn't work out. :(
- Aw, Neal with Bugsy.
- And hooray for June loaning him an engagement ring.
- Another justified suspicious look from Mozzie when James insist on taking the evidence box. Neal doesn't find this suspicious at all?
- Of course Pratt has to rent the 51st floor. I guess they had to bring him into the climax of this story and have him complicate things somehow.
- I think the plan for cloning Pratt's key card needed a little more thought. James is way too volatile to be around Pratt. Hell, I can think of better ways to get close to Pratt. Of course, then we wouldn't have the drama of James and Neal being accused of assault.
- So James did do time in prison? I'm really confused by all this. Was he in prison, or witsec? Or both?
- I have to say, I really like Neal and Sara's fake engagement. I like them as a couple, but I couldn't imagine the show would actually have them get engaged for real (not for long, anyway), and I'm not sure I'd want them to. But the fake engagement seemed like it had a lot of genuine feeling in it, which I liked. And I think whether Neal would actually propose to Sara or not, he really likes the idea of getting married and settling down.
- I have to wonder, though--did all those onlookers hear what they were saying about Neal's trial and Sara calling him a sociopath? Because wouldn't that be weird to hear in a public engagement? Or maybe if you see people getting engaged at the Empire State Building, you just roll with it.
- I love Peter having Neal's anklet on! I think he totally intended to get caught, too--he made sure Diana contacted him with the misleading info just in time for Callaway to hear it.
- Peter is really taking some huge risks here, which is another reason I had a sense of foreboding about him. There's only so far he can push the limit and come out unscathed.
- I had a feeling Mozzie switched the boxes, and I'm so glad he did.
- I was wondering what Neal needed the champagne stand for, and the mini-blimp didn't disappoint. That thing is awesome. And kind of cute.
- At first I was relieved when James shot Pratt because, well, it's Pratt and not a major character we care about. But then I realized there was still time for something terrible to happen.
- I knew what was going to happen the moment James ran off and Peter stayed with Pratt.
- Seriously, it's like things couldn't have been set up worse for Peter. James used his gun, and was wearing gloves. Peter has gunshot residue on his hand.
- It's also ironic, because this is pretty much exactly what James claimed happened to him. Except, you know, Peter is actually telling the truth.
- Actually, thinking about it, it seems like one of the hardest things about this for Peter is that it looks like he's the shooter, but he's saying James was the shooter. Also, that Peter caused trouble for Callaway during the operation. Without these factors, Peter might be able to claim self-defense against Pratt, and it'd be hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it wasn't. In fact, Pratt was holding a gun when he was shot, so wouldn't he still have that in his hand? However, the fact that Pratt was a senator probably complicates things further.
- I knew Neal wasn't going to like what he saw in that evidence box. James was totally hoping to run off with the evidence. I thought all along that James was up to no good, but I wasn't sure if it would actually turn out that he killed his boss.
- And James is a complete asshole, to boot. I mean, I do get his reasoning for not wanting to turn himself in. But dude, an innocent man is being arrested because of you! Do the right thing for once!
- Poor Neal looks so devastated. :(
- Neal, call Diana back! Call the police! Tell them James is fleeing from your apartment! He's brought it on himself.
- It'll be interesting to see how this affects Neal's perception of himself. I hope, in the long run, he comes out of this with more confidence in his own ability to do the right thing. Neal has this anxiety that he takes after his father, but Neal isn't a killer, and he's not okay with innocent people getting hurt or taking the fall for him. Just because both he and his dad are criminals doesn't mean they're alike, and hopefully he sees that.
- It's also interesting how the show has been setting Neal and James up in opposition to each other, and how that culminates in this episode. I've been calling this season "White Collar: Battle of the Father Figures" in my head, and that's what it seems to come down to. There's James, who's a dishonest jerk and is willing to let an innocent man take the fall for a crime he committed. And then there's Peter, whom Neal actually sees as family, who cares about justice and what's right, and is actually telling the truth about being set up.
- The more I think about it, the more I feel like this season has been setting up something bad happening to Peter for a while. The car crash was just a bad omen.
I'm debating rewatching this one again soon, or letting it simmer for a while and wait until I'm not as overwhelmed by it all.
At the very least, I do suspect Peter will be okay in the long run.
This is my first experience of seeing a major White Collar cliffhanger without warning, and I have to wonder, is this how fans of the show always feel at the end of a season? Is my reaction of staring wide-eyed at the screen and wanting to say, "No! What the fuck?" just par for the course?
I want to do a proper breakdown of this episode, but I'm afraid the ending trumps everything else. Still, I'll give it a try.
First, some general notes:
- New episodes aren't coming back until fall? Really? I mean, I guess that sort of makes sense, because I don't know if they've had much time to film season five yet. Still, that's way too long not to know what's going to happen.
- Shock over the cliffhanger aside, I can't imagine things won't work out. I mean, I'd be surprised if Peter spends season five in prison (or much of season five, at least). Then again, I guess you never know. And it'd be an interesting narrative choice....
- Also, I guess maybe it's a good thing that White Collar can manage to surprise me. A lot of the surprises this season haven't been very surprising to me at all, like Sam being James and James being a total dick.
- So, the speculation about a proposal at the Empire State Building was partly true. And the speculation about someone getting shot was true, but not in the way people were expecting.
- I had a sense of foreboding about Peter throughout this episode.
Specific notes:
- James thinks Neal has more self-control than he does? Neal, the guy who walked into a sting to see Kate, broke out of prison to stop Kate from leaving him, and almost shot Fowler? And James is admitting he has less self-control? I feel like this is the first note of foreboding in this episode.
- Callaway sounds so good when she's talking to Peter's face, and so devious when she's talking to Pratt. By the end of this episode, I still don't feel like I know exactly whose side she's on.
- Peter and Elizabeth look so comfortable curled up in bed together.
- Yay! Hughes!
- Per season one, Hughes had been set to retire years ago, and then returned to work because everyone loved him so much. So to be fair, I don't think he has to worry about retiring too early at this point.
- Interesting how Hughes is advocating a less official approach to things now. I feel like this is what has happened to Peter over the first few seasons--seeing Fowler's corruption and Kramer's unethical motives has shaken some of his faith in the system. I think Hughes is in the same place right now.
- Heh, I like groggy!Neal.
- Wait, Sara's staying with him now? Why are things getting so serious between them behind the scenes? There was no indication of it prior to last week! And I really like Neal/Sara, so I would've been all for a little more relationship development.
- Poor Sara. Every time she tries to spend the night with Neal, people barge in on them.
- LOL at James calling her Kate and then Alex, though. Wait, so James knows about Kate, but not that Kate is dead? What's Neal been doing, telling him some fantasy version of things where Kate is still his (casual, apparently) girlfriend?
- James seems awfully defensive when Peter tells them what Pratt said about the evidence. Mozzie totally shoots Neal a suspicious look. Yeah, Mozzie's onto this guy.
- Peter is really lucky to have Diana and Jones on his side.
- I started feeling some serious foreboding about Peter when he makes dinner plans with Elizabeth. I just knew that wouldn't work out. :(
- Aw, Neal with Bugsy.
- And hooray for June loaning him an engagement ring.
- Another justified suspicious look from Mozzie when James insist on taking the evidence box. Neal doesn't find this suspicious at all?
- Of course Pratt has to rent the 51st floor. I guess they had to bring him into the climax of this story and have him complicate things somehow.
- I think the plan for cloning Pratt's key card needed a little more thought. James is way too volatile to be around Pratt. Hell, I can think of better ways to get close to Pratt. Of course, then we wouldn't have the drama of James and Neal being accused of assault.
- So James did do time in prison? I'm really confused by all this. Was he in prison, or witsec? Or both?
- I have to say, I really like Neal and Sara's fake engagement. I like them as a couple, but I couldn't imagine the show would actually have them get engaged for real (not for long, anyway), and I'm not sure I'd want them to. But the fake engagement seemed like it had a lot of genuine feeling in it, which I liked. And I think whether Neal would actually propose to Sara or not, he really likes the idea of getting married and settling down.
- I have to wonder, though--did all those onlookers hear what they were saying about Neal's trial and Sara calling him a sociopath? Because wouldn't that be weird to hear in a public engagement? Or maybe if you see people getting engaged at the Empire State Building, you just roll with it.
- I love Peter having Neal's anklet on! I think he totally intended to get caught, too--he made sure Diana contacted him with the misleading info just in time for Callaway to hear it.
- Peter is really taking some huge risks here, which is another reason I had a sense of foreboding about him. There's only so far he can push the limit and come out unscathed.
- I had a feeling Mozzie switched the boxes, and I'm so glad he did.
- I was wondering what Neal needed the champagne stand for, and the mini-blimp didn't disappoint. That thing is awesome. And kind of cute.
- At first I was relieved when James shot Pratt because, well, it's Pratt and not a major character we care about. But then I realized there was still time for something terrible to happen.
- I knew what was going to happen the moment James ran off and Peter stayed with Pratt.
- Seriously, it's like things couldn't have been set up worse for Peter. James used his gun, and was wearing gloves. Peter has gunshot residue on his hand.
- It's also ironic, because this is pretty much exactly what James claimed happened to him. Except, you know, Peter is actually telling the truth.
- Actually, thinking about it, it seems like one of the hardest things about this for Peter is that it looks like he's the shooter, but he's saying James was the shooter. Also, that Peter caused trouble for Callaway during the operation. Without these factors, Peter might be able to claim self-defense against Pratt, and it'd be hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that it wasn't. In fact, Pratt was holding a gun when he was shot, so wouldn't he still have that in his hand? However, the fact that Pratt was a senator probably complicates things further.
- I knew Neal wasn't going to like what he saw in that evidence box. James was totally hoping to run off with the evidence. I thought all along that James was up to no good, but I wasn't sure if it would actually turn out that he killed his boss.
- And James is a complete asshole, to boot. I mean, I do get his reasoning for not wanting to turn himself in. But dude, an innocent man is being arrested because of you! Do the right thing for once!
- Poor Neal looks so devastated. :(
- Neal, call Diana back! Call the police! Tell them James is fleeing from your apartment! He's brought it on himself.
- It'll be interesting to see how this affects Neal's perception of himself. I hope, in the long run, he comes out of this with more confidence in his own ability to do the right thing. Neal has this anxiety that he takes after his father, but Neal isn't a killer, and he's not okay with innocent people getting hurt or taking the fall for him. Just because both he and his dad are criminals doesn't mean they're alike, and hopefully he sees that.
- It's also interesting how the show has been setting Neal and James up in opposition to each other, and how that culminates in this episode. I've been calling this season "White Collar: Battle of the Father Figures" in my head, and that's what it seems to come down to. There's James, who's a dishonest jerk and is willing to let an innocent man take the fall for a crime he committed. And then there's Peter, whom Neal actually sees as family, who cares about justice and what's right, and is actually telling the truth about being set up.
- The more I think about it, the more I feel like this season has been setting up something bad happening to Peter for a while. The car crash was just a bad omen.
I'm debating rewatching this one again soon, or letting it simmer for a while and wait until I'm not as overwhelmed by it all.
At the very least, I do suspect Peter will be okay in the long run.
